Once Upon a Time
by KathyLang
Summary: A girl by the name of Fae wanders into a forest, a forest full of secrets, curses, witches, monsters and faeries. Fae finds herself trapped in this world of what she thought to be makebelieve, with a young man who calls himself Muirs pronounced mirror, a
1. Chapter 1

Once Upon A Time

By Kathy Lang

**Chapter One**

**April 17, 2006**

Fae looked out the window, bored. The heavy rain came down in sheets, darkening the sky and pounding hard on the glass. She let out a big sigh and jumped in her seat as her tutor called out her name.

"Fae, are you with us?" He asked in a nasally voice.

She rolled her eyes to the ceiling, sighing again. "Yes, Mr. Lame." Fae said, imitating his nasally twang.

"It's Lane, Fae, Lane!" The teacher snorted, stamping his foot. Fae let out a laugh, her imagination running wild. He looked like a hog about to charge. His red face darkened another shade as she went back to looking out the window.

"Listen young lady, I don't know who you think you are, but I asked you a question!" Mr. Lane said, spittle dribbling from his lower lip.

She turned to him, glaring. She hated tutors. Especially this one. And she got the feeling that it was mutual. "What?" She asked him, annoyed at how irritating he was.

It went like this everyday, her tormenting the tutor. She despised him. He was annoying and he really wasn't that great at teaching either.

Fae sighed again, fishing her headphones out of her messenger bag. The tutors had come and gone for the day, leaving Fae more bored than before. Her parents were rich and snobby, and thought it would be best for her to be home-schooled rather than go to a public, or even private, school. So they went and hired the most dull, monotone, and old-fashioned person you could find. Fae's tutor. Her only friend, ha ha.

Fae turned up the volume on her favorite CD of the moment, Slipknot. She loved the way they sang, it definitely wasn't boring. Or dull. Feeling kind of out of it, like she should go somewhere, like someplace was pulling her towards it, she decided to take a walk. She pulled on her green converse and Relient K hoodie and walked out into the drizzle of rain.

Flipping through the songs on her iPod, Fae walked down the side of the road, through the fog. She watched as a car trudged along through the swirling mist, its headlights barely piercing through the thick layer of fog. Fae walked towards the Woods, where she had played when she was little. It felt like the old forest was drawing her closer, she headed towards it. She was never aloud there, there could be murderers and such, but she had always gone anyway. She had not been to the Woods in a long time. The last time she went there, something scary happened.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

**6 Years Ago**

Fae was ten years old. She was walking down to the field to fly a kite, a couple miles from her house in the country, with her parents' permission, of course. She saw the familiar trail as she skipped down to the field, the trail that led to the Woods. The trail was forbidden. Last year, a girl whom Fae had played with, wandered down the trail into the Woods, and was never seen again. They never even found her body. She was just gone. Some people thought that she was kidnapped, others, the older folks, talked of something strange being out there. They talked of faeries. Not the good kinds of faeries though. The bad ones. The evil faeries. When Fae had asked what those were, her parents had shushed her out of the room and would not speak to her about it. Her parents were very superstitious. They believed in faeries and goblins and ghosts. They thought it would be good luck to name her Faerie - Fae for short, to please the little people. Fae thought it was dumb. She had not believed in those kinds of things since she was young. Come to think of it, she had never believed in those kinds of things, in all of her ten years of living. She had never believed in faerie rings or faerie tales or anything of that sort.

Fae plodded on the trail, her little mini converse making a squelching noise in the mud. She didn't really want to think of the girl that disappeared in these woods, Chelsea. She wasn't sure why she was out in the Woods, she was just bored. Maybe she wanted to prove her parents wrong, to show them that there weren't any faeries out there.

"Stupid faeries," She muttered under her breath, kicking a mushroom aside. "they always ruin everything for me."

She heard a twitter of a squirrel up in the tree branches, the trickle of water in the small stream a few feet away. She had wandered far. The sun barely streamed through the thick green canopy of trees overhead. She shivered, although it wasn't that cold. A cloud moved over the yellow orb hanging in the sky. The forest had grown a little darker, casting a shadow over the ground. There was a rustle in the bushes nearby. Fae crossed her arms together, trying to warm herself from the sudden cold.

A girl stepped out of the bushes and shrubs, appearing almost out of nowhere. She appeared to be Fae's age, maybe younger. She seemed very familiar. She was dirty, wearing a tattered dress and barefoot. She looked weary and exhausted.

"Help me," She said weakly to Fae, her eyes lost with fear. "Help me," She repeated, louder this time. "HELP ME!" Fae recognized the girl. She was Chelsea. The girl who disappeared the year before, although she looked the same as she did the last time Fae had seen her, wearing the same dress.

Chelsea was crying out to ten year old Fae for help, yet Fae didn't know what to do. The girl stepped closer towards Fae. Suddenly, out of nowhere, the rain came pounding down over the dense array of trees. Fae shivered. Chelsea took another step towards Fae. Lightning flashed through the now dark sky. Thunder came not long after. The two girls were standing face to face with each other. The whole forest went pitch black. Then, what was recorded to be one of the biggest lightening strikes ever to hit in the United States came down over the field next to the Woods. Thunder sounded at the same time. Then everything went dark again. It was as if the sun had been turned off. Fae couldn't see anything, but she could hear voices. Whispers in the wind. They were human, yet unhuman.

"We should take the girl…" One of them hissed. An evil sound in its voice.

"No, we already have one pet for you, you don't need another. People have been getting suspicious." Another more kind voice said gently.

"She's pretty. I want her." Yet another voice said. A child's voice.

Then Fae heard no more.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

**Present Day**

Fae squelched through the muddy field next to the Woods. It was nice to squelch again, like she did when she was younger, not worrying about getting dirt on her shoes. The Woods looked like something right out of a horror movie. Fae grimaced. She didn't want to scare herself and end up chickening out. She wondered if Chelsea was still there. Waiting for her. She told her parents of seeing Chelsea. They believed her. The doctors didn't though.

Fae walked up the path to the Woods, not surprised at how overgrown it had gotten. Even the neighborhood kids wouldn't go in here on a dare. People didn't hunt here either. It was said that not a single animal had ever been caught by a human out here. Every time a hunter or someone would try to kill it, something bad would happen. Some say the Woods was cursed. Others, like her parents, said it was the faeries. And yet others, like her tutor, thought "Everyone in this hick town has gone nuts." As he put it. Fae had to agree with him though. Well, not entirely. There was still the thing with Chelsea, and the voices. The voices you could hear echoing through the forest on cold lonely nights. Fae sometimes wondered though, if she hadn't made the whole thing up though. A child had a wild imagination. Anyways, with the dress Chelsea was wearing, how did she know Chelsea was wearing it the day she disappeared? Fae walked along,

Listening to the whispers in the wind. It was quite calming, actually, to walk along an overgrown path leading into dark, haunted woods in the night. Fae had been thinking of the faeries all day. All month actually. She couldn't seem to get them off her mind. She would space out during class, contemplating whether or not faeries were real or not. She was starting to wonder if she was crazy. She had been in one of those dazes, where you don't know where your going or what you are doing, just that you have to do it. She was starting to snap out of it. Realizing her surroundings. Starting to notice that she was in a dark forest at night without a flashlight, proper attire, common sense, rationality.


End file.
